The chairman of Isoko South Local Government Area of Delta State, Friday Ovoke Warri, Monday reeled out his achievements to mark his one year in office as the council chairman.
July, 15, 2024, the state governor, Sheriff Oborevwori sworn in Warri as the chairman of Isoko South together with the 24 council chairmen in Asaba with a strong warning to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people as well as shun corruption.
Addressing Journalists in his office, the council chairman disclosed that his administration has been able to turn around the education, agriculture, health sectors as well as tackled the issue of insecurity in the area, adding that “When this administration started, there was a lot of security challenges from various communities in the local government area, there was leadership tussle in Igbide and Olomoro communities respectively, by the grace of God Almighty it has been laid to rest.
“We experienced the issue of herdsmen couple of weeks ago, one of the herder that took his cow to one of our communities, precisely, Idheze-Irri community. He came unannounced to the community, we invited the owner of the cows, we pleaded with him that, we are mainly farmers in the local government area, if you allow your cows here is going to destroy our crops, the owner of the cow said the place is too fertile for him to leave, we involved the security operatives and the issue was resolved.
“We cannot celebrate one year in office without the people not feeling our impacts in government, we have done so much to be celebrated, therefore we must come down to the grassroot, hence we empowered 55 women today, 5 each from the 11 wards in Isoko South Local Government Area.
“Immediately I resumed office I took a walk round the local government area headquarter, one of such was a visit to the bad spot at Ogbemudia road in Oleh, that has been there for years and the bad spot was rehabilitated with drainage and is motorable for commuters.
“My administration equally remodeled the local government council chairman’s quarter that was in shamble with the state of the art facilities, then I was coming to work from my community, I decided that I cannot come to work from afar, I must be on ground. The Irri/Oyede road that was in a bad shape was fixed by this administration and is now 100 percent motorable, the council gate was equally remodeled.
“One of my major cardinal points of our administration is Agriculture, my administration deemed it fit to embark on a pilot project of farming that is profitable, as I speak to you our pepper farm is doing pretty well, we have started harvesting. The administrative block building that was abandoned for over a decade, today work has started and in the next couple of months the project will be completed for commission.
“In the area of health, I can tell you we also done a lot and by grace, we were able to tackle a cholera outbreak at Ikpide-Irri community and normalcy had returned to the agrarian community. On education, you and I know that education is the key to every society foundation. When I came on board some of the primary schools, there was nothing to write home about. I and my team paid unscheduled visit to some of the schools, I discovered many teachers were not coming to work. We embarked on screening process and the report is ready.
“We also embarked on the distribution of notebooks to all primary schools in the local government area. These are among other dividends of democracy my administration has been able to delivered to the people of Isoko South.”, Warri stated.
Speaking the local government autonomy, Warri disclosed that “Isoko South is among the four local government areas with the highest allocation, but our challenges is the highest wage bill from the primary schools teachers salary with about 200 million naira monthly. After the payment of the salary of the primary schools teachers we are among the least local government with allocation.
“Let me appreciate the Executive Governor of Delta State, His Excellency Sheriff Oborevwori, as soon as the Supreme Court pronounced the judgement on the local government autonomy, he mandated all the local government chairmen to submit their account details to the Accountant General of the State and he forwarded same message to the federal government. If you can verify, Delta State is the first State to submit their account details to the federal government.
“And I want to use this medium to plead with other States governors to emulate Delta State by submitting their accounts to the federal government, because these governors are the ones holding us back and making it impossible for the commencement of the local government autonomy. And I want to also in the same vein appeal to the federal government not to wait for everybody before implementing the local government autonomy. Let me use this opportunity to appeal to all Isoko South sons and daughters to as a matter of urgency and importance continue to throw their weights behind President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope and governor Sheriff Oborevwori’s More Agenda.”
Meanwhile in another development, the Isoko South council chairman, Friday Ovoke Warri, empowered 55 women drawn from across the 11 wards in the local government.
Disbursing N200,000 each to the women to burst their petty trading as part of events lined up to mark his one year in office, Warri said the aim was to support grassroots economic growth and development and reduction of hardship among small-scale entrepreneurs.
Addressing the beneficiaries at the Ekpre Otobo hall, Oleh, Warri, urged them to judiciously invest the funds in expanding their existing businesses rather than lavishing the financial support on non-essentials.
“Please, do not spend this money on things that won’t grow your business. If you have been selling just a basket of garri, this is your chance to buy a full bag and increase your stock. You must be financially responsible if you must grow in business. If we see good results from this support, we will consider extending similar assistance to more traders. A monitoring team shall be on ground to monitor how you are going in the business to avoid any act of misusing this financial assistance to you. Some of us see money in our pockets and feel like spending it all, but true financial wisdom is when you have money and still choose not to spend it because you have a goal.
The beneficiaries, who were full of praises and dancing, thanked and commended the council chairman for the kind gesture and promised to put the funds in proper use.
